Yoan Boyeaux Challenges for WBO Super Flyweight Title on Saturday

Uprising Promotions will look to end 2017 on a very high note on Saturday, as stablemate Yoan Boyeaux (41-4, 26 KOs) will challenge Naoya Inoue (14-0, 12 KOs) for the WBO Super Flyweight Championship. The world title fight marks the first for an Uprising Promotions combatant, with the bout taking place at the Bunka Gym in Yokohama, Japan.

(Photo credit: Naoki Fukada)

“We are very grateful to Hideyuki Ohashi and Ohashi Promotions for their hospitality and for this opportunity,” said Ronson Frank, President of Uprising Promotions. “Overall, we are both mentally and physically prepared for this fight. I think we did the best job we could with the timeframe that we had to get ready. We had some issues obtaining Yoan’s Japanese work permit, which cut down on the time he had to work in his training camp. However, we are going into this fight with no excuses, and we have a solid game plan. We are about three to four inches taller than our opponent, and we are going to utilize our height and every other advantage that we have to win the fight. We will go balls-to-the-wall if necessary, and I am expecting a very good performance out of Yoan.”

Boyeaux, 29, signed with Uprising Promotions in October, and his first bout under the banner will be this world championship opportunity. He turned professional eight years ago after a successful amateur career that saw him participate multiple times in the national championships that were held in his home country of France. In just his third professional bout, he battled future multiple division world champion Carl Frampton, and the French pugilist has never been stopped throughout his entire career.

Boyeaux has remained undefeated for almost six consecutive years, a stretch that encompasses his past 32 fights. He has also ended 24 of those 32 bouts inside the distance. After having fought in various locations throughout Europe and South America during his career, Boyeaux most recently stopped Mishiko Shubitidze this past April in the African country of Morocco.

Inoue, 24, will be making his seventh title defense when he meets Boyeaux on Saturday. An accomplished amateur, the Japanese fighter turned professional in 2012. He won the WBC Light Flyweight Championship by beating Adrian Hernandez in his sixth pro bout, defending the belt once before going up in weight to defeat Omar Andres Narvaez for the WBO Super Flyweight Title. Inoue fought outside of Japan for the first time in his last bout, where he stopped Antonio Nieves in September at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Boyeaux and Inoue are slated to be in the ring at 8:00 p.m. local time on Saturday, which is 6:00 a.m. ET.